Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Dec 1, 2007

Locke-d out

Filed in Days Out

It started with a simple forum post on St.N: “Does anyone live in Lodi?” A few people raised their hands, and a date was set to meet for lunch in Locke.

About fifteen miles from home, Locke is a tiny little town on the Delta that was built by Chinese immigrants. They had come here for the Gold Rush, helping with the railroads; after that, they helped to raise the levees.

When their district in nearby Walnut Grove burned down, the Chinese Americans negotiated with a local landowner, George Locke, and in 1915 the current tiny town sprang up. It looks pretty much the same now as it did then, except that some of the buildings are now decidedly wonky and the population (around 90) only includes ten or so Chinese Americans.

Now, the entire town is not just on the National Register but is also a National Historic Landmark.

Locke’s architecture reflects a mingling of American culture with Chinese: the boxy old-style American buildings are often connected by ornate, oriental arches or sport signs written in Chinese characters. The high street has wooden sidewalks connecting several art galleries and knick-knack shops with the owners hanging out and making conversation with anyone who feels like stopping for a while.

The ride down was very cold, but beautiful. The Fall colors here are gorgeous–it’s really a golden season, with the yellow of the road stripes setting off the gold of the falling leaves. It is so different from the Bay Area! Here, I feel the bite of cold through my gloves and boots, and at night…forget it! (Well, okay, I admit that my gloves are starting to disintegrate and this does not exactly help.) ;)

We took a series of county roads that are mostly 55 mph but slow down to go through small rural communities full of mature deciduous trees. Eventually we ended up alongside the river (the Sacramento River?) and crossed through Walnut Grove to get down to Locke.

It took approximately three seconds to drive past Locke (elevation 13 feet). We pulled over and I ran back to see where the bar/restaurant might be. I spotted Main Street down a steep little side street: u-turn required! The main street was one-way and we aimed for the one group of bikers we could see. They had parked in the street and there was a nice two-bike-sized gap waiting for us.

This is the first time I have ever met any St.Ners other than those that I knew from other places. Our reception was very friendly and introductions were quickly and easily made.

I noted that a local cat had planted itself on one of the bikes so I made friends with it. I made such good friends with it, in fact, that it launched from the bike into my arms and molested me happily for the next ten minutes. It was a very nice cat which made a special effort to purr appreciatively for a while.

When the cat got bored with me we crossed the street and went through into “Al the Wop’s”. This is an old-style bar-diner that I can easily imagine appealing to the brethren of E Clampus Vitus. In other words, a dark bar area crammed with all sorts of junk greeted us, and the ceiling was covered in dollar bills attached to silver dollars. It had Character. ;)

We passed the regulars and went into the back room for food. The menu was simple and the service very quick. The condiments on each table included peanut butter and marmalade. Huge portions of food materialized and Don and I immediately understood that our first instinct to share a meal had been the right one. Oh well! We have leftovers. ;)

The conversation was of riding, history, helmet collections, and the forum, not to mention wild turkey encounters (complete with sound effects). I was impressed at how far these guys ride and where they’d been. Playinthestreet had been to New Zealand and told us all about that. Others were talking of attending the “Nationals” in Arkansas next year as though it were just a little ride down the street.

We settled the bill and went out for more chit-chat. While we were invited to ride along, I really wanted to wander up and down the street of Locke and take pictures, so we parted company. While we were in the Chinese shop buying postcards some Harleys left with gut-vibrating ruckus; when we left I noticed that the others, mostly riding dual sports or touring bikes, had gone already with nary a sound from their engines.

Monument to the Chinese-American workers workers in Locke, California

Even the electrical wiring is old-school

Seventy pictures, three more cats and a couple of snarfs later I was pretty content with life. The exit from Locke is rather steep but at the stop sign levels out just enough for two bikes to balance reasonably well. We backtracked and stopped briefly in Walnut Grove with a promise to myself to come back and explore that historic town, as well.

I had lost a bunch of confidence through not riding much in November (not even 300 miles!), the tumble I took and the russian roulette battery. This ride took care of that and by the end I was once again practicing my leaning and having fun with it. And then suddenly I had to slam on the bikes because I was back in town.

Poot. ;)

So saying, my mood is oddly uplifted. ;)

RVers might enjoy Locke, California for RVers.